It's the morning. A lovely winter sun is lighting everything with long shadows and a warm glow. There is a crispness in the air, the kind of crispness that one can smell and only comes when it's below 8c. The dew is thick on the grass making me move quickly to the path so to not get my shoes too wet. It's the kind of day that I'm are thankful that I reached for my scarf on the way out the door. Yes, the scarf is probably overkill, but the warmth around my neck give the morning walk a warm comfortable feeling.
As I turn the corner on the last block before I reach work, I inhale deeply. There's a delicious scent somewhere between baby powder and honey suckle lightly hanging on the air. The warmth of the sun makes me turn my head up and close my eyes. The lorikeets are playing in one of the tall gum trees... it must have been in bloom recently as the ground is covered with gum nuts.
Just a head of me is a bush that has tried desperately to grow across the sidewalk. Over the past few years, the offending branches have been broken or bent back but the bush is stubborn enough to continue trying. The result is a lovely canopy just barely above head height. To add to the perfection of this bush, it is in full bloom.
Wattle is a beautiful flower. The blossom looks like little pompoms creating a fuzzy cone of yellow at the end of every twig. Every time I walk by this bush while it is in bloom, I can't help myself - I must stop and enjoy.
The golden wattle is Australia's Floral Emblem. As soon as I can figure out how to insert a link, I will add it.
taken July 2010 - roadside, Macquarie Park, NSW
I do believe I saw this exact bush on Tuesday. I think the smell is lovely: very subtle but distinctive. I assume that wattleseed for cooking comes from these flowers?
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